Tile floor: Spacing/raising ceramic tile with no heat mat underneath

Folks,

We are remodeling a small bathroom and adding an electrical heat mat under the tiled area with foot traffic. (About 50% of the floor area.)

Can anyone recommend a method for spacing up/higher the tile that does not get the mat? (Nominal thickness for the mat is .125")

Is there a Tile install forum that would be a better source for this type of info?

TIA,

Rog

rfsmith48 said:

Folks,

We are remodeling a small bathroom and adding an electrical heat mat under the tiled area with foot traffic. (About 50% of the floor area.)

Can anyone recommend a method for spacing up/higher the tile that does not get the mat? (Nominal thickness for the mat is .125")

Is there a Tile install forum that would be a better source for this type of info?

TIA,

Rog

Click to expand...

Good question. You can join the John Bridge tiling forum

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php

and ask your question there. I think the notched trowel size (notch size) you use will determine the thickness of the thinset mortar between the tile and the subfloor when the tile is set and should easily accomodate the thickness of that mat. They have the answers over there, for sure.

Use a self leveling floor filler to raise the rest of the floor, or a thicker thinset bed and level the tile to the raised portion.

The maximum thickness of any thin-set mortar is 1/4". The term "Thin-Set" is for this 'Thin Set'. 1/4" is not a lot.

You may consider using a "Thin-Set Mortar" than is also a "Medium Bed Mortar and Thick Bed Mortar" Ardex's X32 is just that. It can be installed up to 1" thick and is rapid setting.

Be careful how much you mix and one time. It would be safer to dry mix the bag and separate it into 4-6 portions. Mixing each as needed. Do not mix this thin-set and then go measure a tile, cut tile, dry fit and so on. Have your cuts ready and mix a small amount.

We used it on this niche project recently and out in UBC on our new project.

The "mat" is .125 which is 1/8".

rfsmith48 said:

Folks,

We are remodeling a small bathroom and adding an electrical heat mat under the tiled area with foot traffic. (About 50% of the floor area.)

Can anyone recommend a method for spacing up/higher the tile that does not get the mat? (Nominal thickness for the mat is .125")

Is there a Tile install forum that would be a better source for this type of info?

TIA,

Rog

Click to expand...

I see you registered on John Bridge and they recommended using sef leveling compound like HJ did also.